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Chickpea, Cucumber, Tomato and Feta salad {It's a side dish but it's also a pita sandwich!}

Last week my eating patterns were way off. Always happens when Doug leaves town....I seem to eat late and I usually just toss a meal together from leftovers in the fridge. Ok, I did treat myself to sushi one day for lunch. That was great.

One evening I made my egg and rice stir fry and stayed up late to finish my latest Peter Robinson book. For dinner the following night I made a salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, olives and feta. I stuffed a pita pocket with it and had a nice light dinner. There was enough salad leftover to serve as a side with a Greek Shrimp Scampi for dinner once Doug was home.

He had to go to Marathon in the Keys but it's not as great as you'd think. Fly down for a meeting and then back again the next evening. No time to enjoy that tropical part of our state. To make things complicated, he couldn't get a flight back until near 11:00 P.M. and that means I drive to the airport late. In the dark. If your vision isn't great that can be a scary expedition so.....and this was probably stupid......I left super early and sat in the short term parking and watched a movie on my tablet! Crazy, huh? :-)

The following evening the good life begins when we can make a meal and enjoy it on our covered porch. Sit and sip wine, talk, eat seafood and watch a couple of foxes eating the leftovers I leave on a tree stump. I think our actual home could be smaller and we'd be fine as long as we had a covered porch. It's just about the best room of all.

Here is the recipe for the salad. Obviously a recipe is more like a guideline so substitute where you like and make it per your taste. Summer salads are always so good!

Chickpea, cucumber, tomato and Feta salad

Ingredients

1 (15 oz) can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/2 small red onion, chopped

15 grape tomatoes, halved (about 1 cup)

1/3 cup pitted olives

1 medium cucumber, sliced

4 oz feta cheese, crumbled or cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Dressing:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Place all salad ingredients into a large bowl and toss to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and oregano. Pour onto salad and toss again to well combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as you'd like.

I love a covered porch - especially a screened one because mosquitoes come from miles around to bite me. I get out of whack when J is out of town too though I must say even though your schedule is off you're eating pretty great! This all looks tasty and healthy! I don't drive at night very much and can sometimes get really stressed if I have to do it so I'm all for hanging out in your car watching a movie!

JoAnn, I hope you like it. It's good for the first two days then gets soggy so next time I will make a smaller portion. Yea to screened rooms!

Vicki, it's great lol on its own so no breads needed .

Katherine, next time I have to go to the airport early I found out there is parking called Cell Phone parking. It would have been free. Oh well. Thanks, the salads are good for when Doug is out of town because I can take them for lunch too.

Thank you all for your very nice comments. After that was posted I was hit by a virus or allergy, still not sure which, and I have been sleeping constantly. Off to visit you all now, glad to be back in the land of the living again.